Category Archives: Otakon

This has not been a good few weeks for me. My Otakon experience was marred by issues out of the convention’s control. While it was awesome that I was able to talk about Satoshi Kon to a group of 200-300 people in the middle of the night, the external stuff brought everything else down. Between car troubles, illness, lack of sleep, and a whole host of other issues, there will have to be a major reassessment of how I do things if I ever plan to go back. It’s a shame, but there’s not much you can do when you have a near-Perfect Storm of issues.

To compound on this, I had to pull out of Saikoukon due to a work conflict. This is the first time I can recall having to do this and it bugs me to no end. To be fair, I am fortunate to have a day-to-day job that gives me enough time out to do so many conventions—I’m still on pace for attending nine shows this year (more than I did in my first three years of going to cons) doing panels in as many as eight of them (as many as I did in my first five years of doing panels) and theoretically, I could’ve gone to 13-14 shows in total had I not gone to Japan—but there are other parts of my job that are dicey (tl;dr my job is secure, my position is not) and make it less desirable. Ideally, MP would be a side source of income while I find a position that pays well enough and is flexible enough to allow me to continue with MP, but that is still a long way from happening.

Luckily, I still have three shows left on the docket, and 2017 is shaping up to be very interesting, so I just need to find a way to get back on the proverbial horse (or is it panther in my case?) and continue to plug away.

As I’m writing this, the doors for Sunday programming at Anime Expo are just starting to open. I am not with them (for multiple reasons, most of them logistics-related) but it would be certainly fun to get there once. That being said, I have news that is just as important: As spoiled by the countdown clock in the right-hand corner of this site: I am presenting at Otakon. When I first joined fandom around 1998—even when I started going to conventions in 2005—I couldn’t imagine running a panel at something of this magnitude, let alone even attending. For Otakon’s final bow in Baltimore I have been selected to present a panel that I don’t do very often, but it’s about a topic that I love: “Satoshi Kon & The Mystery of Me,” in which I break down the works of my all-time favorite director of media and examine how what he had to say about the culture of Japan and its relation with individuality. It’s a little academic, but it’s a ton of fun to present, so if you’re of age, I hope you will join me.

As is custom, I will be helping out Megaroad Toys when I’m not presenting or being awestruck at 30,000 people in one convention space, so there will be ample time to say hi and comment. Presenting at Otakon has been a culmination of over 10 years of work and dedication. I want to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point, and if you want me to go even further, feel free to spread a good word or two to your local show.